Trump Calls North Korea ‘Depraved’ And Warns It Could Soon Threaten The US

President Donald Trump had choice words in his State of the Union address for North Korea, citing the “depraved character” of its government for its “reckless pursuit” of nuclear weapons.

But he did not propose new policies to confront North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, with whom he has at times engaged in name-calling.

“No regime has oppressed its own citizens more totally or brutally than the cruel dictatorship in North Korea,” Trump said. “North Korea’s reckless pursuit of nuclear missiles could very soon threaten our homeland.”

North Korea last year tested its most powerful nuclear device yet, and tested its first intercontinental ballistic missile capable of reaching U.S. shores.

He cited the tragic case of Otto Warmbier, an American college student who was imprisoned in Pyongyang but died days after he was returned home to Ohio in a coma. His parents were in the House chamber for the speech.

Trump also saluted a North Korean defector whose legs had to be amputated in his torturous escape to the south.

“We need only look at the depraved character of the North Korean regime to understand the nature of the nuclear threat it could pose to America and our allies,” Trump said.

He said his administration is applying “maximum pressure,” military and diplomatic, in a so-far unsuccessful attempt to stop Kim from developing the capability to directly threaten the United States.

Benjamin Franklin nailed it when he said, "Fatigue is the best pillow." True story, Benny. There's nothing like pushing your body so far past exhaustion that you'd willingly, even longingly, take a nap on a concrete slab.

U.S. Coast Guard cutter Bertholf left California on January 20 for a months-long mission in the Pacific to support U.S. Indo-Pacific Command, the largest of the U.S. military's geographic combatant commands.

Coast Guardsmen aboard the Bertholf left Alameda on the 30th day of what is now the longest government shutdown in U.S. history. They left a few days after not getting their first paycheck since that shutdown started and without knowing when the next will come.